


Just a Little Bit Old

by EdenSummers



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Children, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family Fluff, Fix-It, Gen, High Honor Arthur Morgan, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:15:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26168485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EdenSummers/pseuds/EdenSummers
Summary: It's been thirteen years since Arthur left the Van Der Linde gang and moved to the Grizzlies territory. How has his life been since then?
Relationships: Arthur Morgan/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 36





	Just a Little Bit Old

**Author's Note:**

> So a general warning, I have not played the RDR1 or 2 games but I've watched play throughs and looked stuff up to fill the gaps! In this story Arthur doesn't have TB.

“Arthur.”

Arthur Morgan groaned and turned away from the voice that woke him. He cracked his eye open to peer at the window. It was dark and looked to be the middle of night. “It’s not even mornin, Tansy.” 

“I need you to go to the creek and get some water, Naomi has a fever.” 

His eyes shot open and he sat up to look at his wife. “I thought she was feeling better at supper last night.” Arthur got out of bed and pulled on some pants and a shirt from the floor before shoving his feet into his boots.

“I thought she was too, but Betsy woke me up saying that Naomi was sweating and coughing.” His wife stood at the door, wringing her hands. “Do you think we should go get the doctor?.”

Arthur grabbed her hands and held them. “Not yet, we can try to get the fever down ourselves and if that doesn’t seem to work, we’ll give her some of that medicine from that time Maggie had a fever. After we’ve tried all that, we’ll get the doctor.” 

Temperance shook her head in agreement. “I’ll go find that medicine while you’re getting the water.” 

He shook his head and headed downstairs to grab the water bucket before leaving the house. 

Arthur had never expected to get married, especially not after his relationship with Mary went sour. When he had moved to the remote logging village in the Grizzlies territory to avoid the fallout of the Van Der Linde gang, he sure as hell didn’t think it would ever happen. 

Temperance had been living with her parents in the house across from his new place while he was working for the logging company. Her father worked there as well and through the many journeys to job sites, Arthur had become friends with him. With this friendship, it lead to him being invited for dinner or the occasional plate being sent over when Arthur got back from work. 

She had been sweet and Arthur had thought she was pretty enough, but Temperance did not seem to show any interest in him at the time. This suited Arthur fine at the time as he thought their age difference of eleven years would have been too large for them. Plus, he didn’t want to start a relationship with his only friend's daughter if it would cause tension between them. 

Then a work accident happened that left Temperance’s father in excruciating pain and unable to work. Arthur had stepped in to help his friends wife and daughter as winter began to set in. He would spend most of his hours after work talking to his friend and stocking up or repairing things around the house. Before winter would end, his friend would pass away. Arthur still did the same things for his friends widow and daughter for the next year, including keeping them afloat financially. 

But as with all small communities, word got out and rumors started. Many thought Arthur and Temperance were together without being married. Some even thought Arthur was only helping them because she was sleeping with him. Arthur found this out after the local preacher confronted him for “using charity to take advantage of a young woman and her mother.” 

The gossip got to Temperance’s mother and with the addition of the loss of her husband, it did not take long for her to pass when a wave of sickness passed through town. 

This left Temperance alone with no relatives and at the mercy of the world. Arthur had seen what happened to women like Temperance all too many times during his time as an outlaw. He thought of Sadie and what happened after the death of her husband. Sadie had turned to the outlaw life for revenge and to be able to take care of herself. But Temperance wasn’t an outlaw nor could he imagine her becoming one. 

Arthur had offered to help her find relatives that she could live with but Temperance’s family were all dead or somewhere on the east coast. They had sent a letter to one of her uncles in Massachusetts but he rejected the idea of her coming to live with him. There was one other choice they could contemplate and Arthur wasn’t much of a fan of it.

They could get married. He didn’t have reservations because he didn’t like her, in fact, his affection for Temperance had grown since he started helping out when her father had still been alive. No, he had been worried that what the preacher was saying was true, that he was taking advantage of the situation. Arthur decided to mention it in passing as the last resort but had been floored when Temperance said she would consider it. He had asked her why and she had said “You’re a good man, Mr. Morgan.”

A few weeks later, they married and moved to another logging town for a new start. The first few months of their marriage had been awkward, Arthur may or may not have called her “Miss Howard” a couple of times by accident. That led to him just not saying her name at all and just settling for darlin’. Then that had evolved into Temperance then later on Tansy. Six months into their marriage they had finally become comfortable in their new relationship and were able to move forward. 

Not long after that, Temperance had become pregnant with their first child. That first pregnancy had been a whirl-wind for Arthur. He had just gotten used to thinking of himself as a married man but now he was adding a child to that picture. Arthur hadn’t been there when Eliza had been pregnant with Isaac, but now he was experiencing it all first hand. But underneath all that panic was the anticipation of doing things differently with this child. Of being there more often. And one day of telling them of their older brother that they never got to meet.

After nearly a day of labor, Temperance and Arthur’s first child Elizabeth was born. While the midwife waited for Temperance’s labor to end (Arthur still didn’t understand because Elizabeth was already out), they had placed a tiny squalling Elizabeth into his arms. He sat dumbfounded at their kitchen table before he shook himself and worked on trying to soothe his daughter. After many different approaches, he found that Elizabeth started quieting when he gathered her to his chest and hummed to her. Standing in the kitchen with his daughter clutched to his chest, he may have felt a stray tear fall down his face as Elizabeth drifted to sleep. 

Just a month shy of Elizabeth’s second birthday, their second daughter Laura was born. Then came Naomi two and a half years later. Then Margaret two years after that. And finally, their youngest Delphine came three years after Margaret and just recently turned one. 

In a turn of events, Temperance had looked at him just last week and told him that she thinks she’s pregnant again. 

‘Damn, I need to keep my hands off her.’ He loved his children but he always felt he was testing fate each time Temperance became pregnant. Like things would go wrong and he’d lose her. After the last two children he had resolved to be more careful. He had even tried to find one of those diaphragms that came from Europe but his location prevented him from looking in earnest. So he had resolved himself to just turning her away and just ignoring it. 

That went about as well as one might think, especially when not even two weeks later Temperance came to bed without a nightgown and set to touching him. 

Arthur reached the creek and drew the cold water into the bucket. He hated when one of his children was sick. It put both him and his wife on edge every time one of them came down with something. Getting the water back up to the house will hopefully begin the reduction of the fever so Naomi would get better quickly. 

As he walked back into the house, he heard Naomi coughing. The sound made his gut clench on his way up the stairs and into the girls’ room. Elizabeth and Laura shared a bed in one corner while Naomi and Margaret shared another in the opposite corner. Delphine slept in a crib that was situated near the door. 

“How’s she doing Tansy?” Arthur asked as he put the bucket down beside the bed Naomi was in. At age six, Naomi still looked so small compared to the bed. She was curled up and shivering underneath the quilts. She let out another wet cough that shook her entire body and let out a small whimper. 

“I went ahead and gave her some of that medicine.” Temperance said, she had a small grin as she continued. “Said it was the worst thing she ever tasted.”

Arthur let himself chuckle briefly about that. Naomi was his picky one. If it wasn’t sweet or her favorite food, she refused to even try it. “Poor baby.” 

“I think we need to move the other girls out of the room. I don’t want them getting sick too.” Temperance said. 

He nodded and turned to the other bed where Elizabeth and Laura were sitting up in their bed. “Come on, you heard your mama.”

“I moved Maggie over here when I noticed Naomi was sick, Pa.” Elizabeth said. Upon further inspection, Arthur noticed that four year old Margaret was indeed wedged between her two older sisters.

She had fallen back asleep and Arthur would prefer to keep it that way. Margaret was a bundle of energy that generally refused to sleep unless she had burned through it all. If she woke up again, she might decide she’s up for the day and Arthur would have to run after her while helping Temperance with Naomi. 

“That’s okay, I’ll carry her. You’re going to me and your mama’s room.” Elizabeth and Laura slid out of bed carefully as not to wake their little sister. Margaret stayed asleep until Arthur slid his arms underneath her so he could lift her. 

“Pa? The sun’s not up, we should be sleepin.” Margaret mumbled, sounding like a whine. 

“You can go back to sleep.” Arthur started making his way to his room with Margaret cradled against his chest. To his surprise, Laura was still standing in the hallway.

“What’s the matter, honey?” He asked her, shifting Margaret against his chest so he could reach for Laura’s hand. 

Laura took his hand and sniffled. Her big eyes were full of tears, “Is Naomi going to be okay?” Her voice was soft and shook slightly. 

“Your mama has given her some medicine and we got her some water. Naomi will get better over the next couple of days.” Saying that made Arthur feel as if he was jinxing himself but he knew that it would just upset Laura if she knew what could possibly happen. 

She sniffled and buried her face into his side. As they drew closer to his room, he gently let go of Laura’s hand in favor of resting his hand on her back in an attempt to soothe her. Laura had always been quiet and nervous. Arthur found that he had to be gentler with her compared to her siblings. One time she had been teased by one of the neighbor’s children that were much older and that made her cry. In all of his years since being in the gang, he hadn’t wanted to kick someone’s ass so badly. 

Luckily, Elizabeth had kicked the bastard for teasing her sister and left a sizable bruise. The parents got a confession out of their son when they saw the bruise. They made the boy come over and apologize. The apology had been lousy in Arthur’s opinion, but it would do. For now. 

He placed Margaret in the center of his and Temperance’s bed. Thankfully, she had fallen straight back to sleep in the hall and didn’t wake up again. Arthur turned to see Elizabeth patting Laura’s back and wiping her tears.

“Naomi, will be okay, Laura. I’ve seen mama and pa take care of all of you while you were sick like that.” Elizabeth said while walking her sibling towards the bed. 

Laura sniffled and nodded her head but headed in the direction of Arthur. He picked her up and tried to ignore the twinge of sadness when he realized she was getting too big for him to hold her like this. “It’s okay, baby. Now dry those tears and try to go to sleep.” Arthur said as he stroked her back.

He held for a few more moments before he pulled back the covers and put Laura down. He kissed her forehead as he drew the covers over her and wiped some of the stray tears that had made it down her cheeks. Elizabeth was crawling into the other side as Arthur went over to her. 

“Thank you for helping your mama with your sisters, Betsy.” Arthur kissed her forehead too. “I might need your help in the next couple days but I promise it won’t be too much.”

“That’s okay, Pa. I’m bigger now and I want to help.” 

“I think your gettin ahead of yourself, you’re still Itsy Bitsy.” Arthur snorted at his own joke as Elizabeth giggled.

“I am not!” 

“Whatever you say, little lady.” He ruffled her hair.

Elizabeth huffed, “Pa! My braid!” That elicited a giggle from Laura on the other side of the bed. 

“I’m going to go grab Delphine and her crib, then I want both of you to get right back to sleep.” Arthur said as he got back up and headed back to the girls room. 

His youngest was sitting up in her crib with her fingers in her mouth. She looked up at him and smiled while kicking her legs. She let a string of noises that vaguely sounded like a sheep but Temperance is convinced she’s trying to say his name. 

“Come ‘ere, my little darlin’” Arthur cooed as he picked her up. He cleared his throat and looked over to make sure Temperance hadn’t heard him. Delphine was going to be the hardest to get back to sleep. Arthur winced as the hand that had previously been in her mouth was pushed into his cheek, smearing drool into his facial hair. 

He walked with Delphine to where the other girls were at and instructed Elizabeth to hold her while he brought in the crib. The crib was a small size and could easily be carried to another room. So it didn’t take him long to set it up and put Delphine back into it after kissing her cheek. 

With the other girls situated in his room, Arthur went back to see if Temperance needed anything and to check in on Naomi. 

Temperance had placed a rag on Naomi’s forehead and was using another one to wipe at her skin. 

Arthur walked up behind Temperance and placed both hands on her shoulders. “Do you need anything?”

She shook her head. “You can go back to sleep if you want. I know you have to work tomorrow.”

“Nah, I won’t sleep a wink if you don’t.” he replied, dismissing her suggestion. “I’ll tell Mark in the morning to pass on that I can’t come because one of us is sick. Boss won’t want me spreading potential sickness to the other workers anyhow.”

Arthur’s attention went to Naomi and her little red cheeks. Her eyes fluttered open and he went to stand on the other side of Temperance so he could stroke her hair. “Hey, honey.” He removed some of the hair clinging to her skin so she’d be more comfortable.

Another cough rattled Naomi’s body. “Oh, Pa, I don’t feel good.”

His heart clenched. “I know, I know. But we gave you something to help you feel better.”

She screwed up her face, “It was nasty.”

Arthur chuckled, “I don’t doubt it, but it’ll do its job.”

Naomi nodded her head and coughed again. She held up her hand, “Mama can you hold my hand?”

“I will when I get done with wiping you down.” Temperance replied. “Pa can hold it till then.”

Arthur reached for her and her little hand held his. He kept stroking her hair as well, all the while thinking about how much he hated when his girls were sick. Temperance included. 

“Should you be doing this if you think you’re pregnant?” Arthur said softly.

“I’d still do it if I was an inch from death, so it doesn’t matter.” Temperance replied matter of factly. 

Arthur shook his head, “Well I’d rather keep both of you.” He looked outside the window of the girls room, the sky was just beginning to lighten. “I could go get the doctor.” 

“No, I think the medicine is helping bring her fever down, but we’ll have to get more if she has a couple more nights like this.” 

They didn’t say much more as Temperance finished wiping Naomi down with cool rags. Sometime between all this, Naomi had drifted off to sleep while Arthur kept playing with her hair. Her hand still clutched his and he didn’t dare let it go in fear that she’d wake back up. That and it made him feel a little better, too. A little later, Temperance said she was going to pour out the water and needed Arthur to help her carry it. 

Once they got back in from emptying the bucket, they stood in the kitchen just to collect themselves.

Temperance looked out the window wearily, “We’ve done what we can for now. We’ll wipe her down again later if it doesn’t seem to get better.” She wrung her hands together. “And I think I just want to go ahead and take her to the doctor first thing if it doesn’t break.”

Arthur grabbed her hands and brought them to his chest. “Then that’s what we’ll do. But for now, let’s lay down. If she needs anything, we’re three feet away from her.” 

She sighed and wrapped her arms around him. “I don’t like it when our babies are sick.”

“I don’t either, but for now, sleep.” Arthur said. In the hopes of distracting her he added playfully. “Or I’ll have to help you go to sleep.” His hands slid down to squeeze her bottom.

Temperance gasped and hit his chest. “Arthur!”

“Ow.” 

“I’m not fornicating-”

“Is it fornicating if we’re married?”

“Oh, you know what I mean. Our sick daughter is in the room.”

“Eh, who said it had to be in bed? We could go down the creek instead.”

“I know what you’re doing. While I appreciate the offer, I’m declining.” Temperance snickered. “You need help, Arthur Morgan.”

Arthur grinned when she stood on her tiptoes to kiss his nose. “You missed.”

“I did not, your nose was what I was aiming for.”

“What the hell is a nose kiss going to do? Try again.”

Temperance huffed and wrapped her arms around his shoulder more so she could get leverage to reach him. “Oh no, just make me do it all by myself then”

He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her so they were eye to eye. “This better, darlin’?”

She pecked him on the lips, “Much better, but I think we should go lay down so we can get some rest tonight.”

Arthur gave her a squeeze before he set her down to follow her up to the girls’ room. Naomi was still asleep when he crossed to the take the luke warm rag off of her forehead. He let Temperance slide into bed first before he got in and kissed her before she rolled to face the wall. Laying on his back he closed his eyes and tried to drift off.

He must have because right as the sun was peaking across the sky, a small knee planted itself in his stomach. He groaned and opened his eyes to see Naomi crawling over him.

“Sorry, Pa.” she whispered before she coughed. 

He shook his head to clear it and held a hand up to her forehead to check for fever. She was still warm, but no where near as bad as last night. “It’s okay, honey. What are you doing.”

“I want to lay down with you and mama.” 

All Arthur did was nod his head and help Naomi crawl the rest of the way over him to lay between him and Temperance. 

Temperance stirred as Naomi settled herself against Arthurs’ side. “Naomi? Are you feeling better?”

“My belly hurts.”

“Her fever is better.” Arthur added and he saw Temperance sigh in relief. “I’m going to check on the other girls.”

He made his way to his and Temperance’s room, rubbing at his face tiredly. Just a peek into the room and a quick check into Delphine’s crib would do it. 

All three girls looked to be sound asleep in the bed and Delphine was also still asleep. Arthur reached into Delphine’s crib and rubbed her belly gently before turning to head out of the room. 

“Pa!” A voice loud-whispered to him from the direction of the bed.

He turned to see Margaret fighting against the covers so she could get up. 

“You still got time to sleep if you want, Maggie.” He said, hoping that she just needed something quick before she would lay back down.

“The sun is up.” Margaret said.

Which meant that Margaret was up for the day. “Okay, okay.” He crossed the room to help her out of the covers so she didn’t wake her sisters. 

“I’m hungry.”

“I’ll make you some hoecakes.”

“But I don’t like them.”

“All your Pa can make is hoecakes. And mama is still sleeping after taking care of Naomi all night last night.” Arthur closed the door and made his way down the stairs. He remembered that he needed to catch Mark before he left for the mill. 

After he talked to Mark from the porch while holding Margaret, he went back inside to start making the hoecakes. She must have really been hungry because she ate them without complaint. 

Just as Margaret was finishing up, Temperance came down with Delphine and Laura following not far behind. 

“Is Naomi asleep again?” Arthur asked.

Temperance nodded. “I figured I should get up to help you with the rest of the girls.” 

“I can do it.” He assured her.

“Arthur, you’re burning the hoecakes.”

He cursed, which made Margaret and Laura giggle. The hoecake was still salvageable.

“Arthur!” Temperance admonished. 

“Sorry, girls. Don’t repeat that.”

Temperance set about making oatmeal for Delphine after setting her on the floor with one of her dolls. Laura, seeing that her parents might need a little help, went to go sit and entertain her younger sister. 

Arthur made the rest of the girls hoecakes, setting the slightly burnt ones aside for himself. Elizabeth came down the stairs and helped Margaret clean up after she had gotten done eating. They were about to head out when Temperance paused in feeding Delphine. “You girls can’t play with any of the other children for the next few days.”

“Okay, mama, we won’t.” Elizabeth said. 

“If you want, I can take you fishing.” Arthur offered. 

Margaret bounced up and down. “Pa, let’s go, let’s go.” 

“All right, all right. Let’s go grab the stuff from the shed and we can head out.” Arthur said before turning to Temperance. “You going to be okay with Delphine or do you want me to bring her?”

“Naomi will sleep most of the morning so you’ll be back before I have to go check on her again.” 

Arthur bent over where she was sitting to kiss her. Delphine squealed and grabbed his shirt. He gave her a kiss too before saying. “Love you, Tansy.”

“Love you, too, Arthur.”

By the time he made it outside, the girls had already opened the shed and were dragging out the three fishing poles he had acquired over the years. 

“I want to carry one!” Margaret said, reaching for one of the poles.

“No, you’re too little, Maggie.” Laura said. “There’s a sharp piece that could hurt you.”

Margaret’s shoulders sagged and Arthur added, “You could help me dig for worms when we get there.” 

At the aspect of getting dirty, she lit up again. “Okay!”

They set off in the direction of the creek, with Arthur telling Margaret not to get too far ahead. 

“It’s okay, Pa. I'll catch up with her.” Elizabeth said as she took off after her sister. Laura, not wanting to be left out, followed after Margaret. 

Seeing her sisters chasing her, Margaret took off. The sisters in pursuit all started laughing.

Arthur chuckled to himself until he noticed that they were getting pretty far away. He cursed and started to run after them. This just made the girls squeal and run faster. He finally caught up when they made it to the creek.

As he tried to catch his breath, he heard the girls talking about something or another they saw in the creek. Elizabeth said something that made Laura and Margaret giggle. At least they were having fun, he thought. He just wished Temperance, Naomi and Delphine were with them. 

Arthur put his hands on his knees, his heart slowing and his breath catching up back to normal. 

“Are you okay, Pa?” Laura asked.

He just waved a hand at them. “Yeah, your Pa is just too old.” That made his daughters dissolve into another fit of laughter. 

“Pa is old, isn’t he?” Margaret teased. Arthur threw back his head and laughed.

As his side and back begged for mercy, Arthur admitted to himself that he in fact, might be a little bit old.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I hope you enjoyed! So Arthur and Temperance children's ages are as follows: Elizabeth (10.5), Laura (8.5), Naomi (6), Margaret (4), and Delphine (1). I'm thinking about writing how Temperance and Arthur got together if y'all want or are interested! Thank you for reading!


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